Danish court tells ISP to block access to AllofMP3.com

A Copenhagen court has ordered European ISP Tele2 to block access to Russian …

AllofMP3.com suffered yet another setback as a Danish court ruled that an ISP must block access to the Russian music site. The ruling only covers one ISP (Tele2) in one country, but the ruling will certainly set the stage for more lawsuits as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry believes it has developed another successful tool in its fight against AllofMP3.

Unable to shut the site down in Russia after years of trying, the IFPI has recently tried to cut off AllofMP3 from the other end—making it difficult for users to connect to the site and harder for the site to accept international credit cards. As we reported a week ago, the IFPI was responsible for bringing AllofMP3 to the attention of Visa, which stopped processing payments in early September. The recording industry has also been successful at getting its worries heard by politicians; the US Trade Representative, for instance, has publicly called AllofMP3 one of the most significant obstacles to Russia's bid to join the WTO.

Going after ISPs is only the next logical step. IFPI Denmark sued Tele2 in Copenhagen City Court back in July, asking a judge to force the ISP to cut off access to AllofMP3.com. Yesterday, the judge agreed to do so. John Kennedy, head of IFPI, said: "This judgment is one more step along the road to getting this rogue site closed down. Allofmp3.com illegally offers for sale copies of music that it has no right to reproduce or distribute. It provides unfair competition to the nearly 400 legal sites worldwide that respect the rights of composers, artists and record producers."

Ib Tolstrup, who leads a Danish telecommunications industry group, told Computerworld Denmark that the decision could have dire consequences for the entire industry. "We are horrified over this judgment, to say the least. It means that we must now keep an eye on what our users are doing online. And blocking user access to certain websites will never be a perfect solution," he said. "This can spread anywhere. Next time we might be asked to block pages with illegal software or something like that. But we will always demand a court order before acting on these requests."

By making ISPs responsible for controlling their users' access to illicit material, the court has cracked open a massive can of nightcrawlers. The worries here are obvious: how can each ISP be expected to monitor websites around the globe and make legal judgments about whether such sites are legitimate under local and Danish law? In the US and Europe, courts have generally recognized that users—not service providers—are responsible for abiding by the law while using the Internet. This ruling calls that basic principle into question.

If upheld, it could open ISPs in Denmark to a flood of complaints from companies, industry groups, and individuals, asking the ISP to block access to material deemed offensive or illegal, even if no court has yet ruled on legality. The alternatives are not appealing: fight every request in court at great expense or accept every request at face value and become an all-out censor. Hoping to avoid this nightmare scenario, Tele2 has filed an appeal.